Battle of the giants: EU charges Elon Musk’s X

On 12 July 2024, the European Commission formally accused X of breaching EU rules on community media. The move could set a precedent, as the platform is the first to be charged under the Digital Services Act (DSA), an EU regulation adopted in 2022 to deal with illegal content, transparent advertising and disinformation. Concerns about the nature of the content on X have been raised since Elon Musk bought the platform - in part because he laid off many of its moderators - and the European Commission has previously warned that it faces the biggest disinformation problem of the major platforms. In the US, controversy over extremist material on the site has led to an advertising boycott, a bitter dispute between Musk and a campaign group, and even suggestions that X could go bankrupt.

In October 2023, the EU said it had launched an investigation into X for the possible distribution of terrorist and violent content and hate speech following Hamas' attack on Israel. X said at the time that it had removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts from the platform. In December, the platform was accused of allowing disinformation and illegal hate speech to spread and introducing misleading authentication features.

The ECJ's preliminary finding was that X had misled users with so-called blue checks. In the past, blue checks were mainly used to monitor government officials, public figures and journalists to prevent them from misinforming their followers. Musk changed this system: he allowed users to buy blue check accounts. This allowed scammers for example to impersonate US politicians Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, among many other high-profile celebrities. The Commission found that the platform had failed to meet its obligation to provide a searchable and reliable advertising repository and limited access to its public data to researchers. "We will not hesitate to use our tools to the full where justified to protect EU citizens from serious harm", wrote European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton on Elon Musk's platform in response to the issue. He also stated that Elon Musk-owned X is also suspected of breaching its transparency obligations. X said it was "cooperating with the regulatory process". The company also said in a statement that "it is important that this process remains free from political influence and follows the law. X is focused on creating a safe and inclusive environment for all users on our platform, while protecting freedom of expression, and we will continue to work tirelessly towards this goal," it added.

Violations of the DSA can result in fines of up to 6% of X's global revenue or even suspension. This could mean millions of euros in fines for the platform. Following the denunciation, X will have the right to defend itself against the charges and propose measures to alleviate the EU's concerns.